Bad Times In Charm City: Another In An Endless Chain Of Unrelated Incidents

In which Baltimore becomes the latest protest spot.

By now, it's a template. Black citizen encounters police, or quasi-police. Black citizen winds up dead in circumstances that are at best bizarre and, at worst, murderous. Protesters hit the streets. Mayor appeals for calm. Lawyer for dead guy's family appeals for justice. Lawyer for police union blames victim (sadly) for own death. This week, it's Baltimore.And the weekend is already laden with dread.

Police also called in reinforcements from the Maryland State Police to help monitor the protests, which are expected to continue Friday and into the weekend, with a large march and rally planned Saturday afternoon from the scene of Gray's arrest in Gilmor Homes to City Hall. Many, including Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, criticized the city for calling in police reinforcements for nonviolent protests. "You don't need it at all," Young said. "Our citizens, the majority of them, are not violent. They are frustrated and angry."

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Freddie Gray should not be dead, any more than Michael Brown, or Eric Garner, or Eric Harris, or Trayvon Martin should be dead. None of them did anything that necessitated them being dead. The community outrage is entirely righteous. But the fact remains that only one side of this ongoing, many-sided tragedy sees this as a national problem requiring a national solution. The other side sees it as a series of unrelated incidents, happening over and over again. That side, as it happens, is the side that has the guns. This may well be an insuperable barrier to a permanent solution. One side is told to be calm and wait for justice. Even when there emerges evidence that the killing of Freddie Gray may have been the result of business as usual for the Baltimore P.D., the other side barricades itself in armed denial.

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What happens to black citizens in their encounters with state authority as represented by police is the sharp end of the national problem of militarized local police forces. Recently, the right-wing press was all agog about some police tactics used in Wisconsin in 2011. (To be entirely accurate, the woman who is the hero of the linked piece was more than simply an "activist." She was an aide to Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee county executive, one of several who haven't been convicted of anything yet.) Welcome to Ferguson, folks. Keep your heads down. I'm sure it was just an isolated incident.